​​Mixed and irregular migration is a key feature in North Africa (NA), often leading migrants to be in vulnerable situations of violence, abuse, exploitation and human trafficking. The protection needs are particularly seen in the Central Mediterranean Route (CMR) as the main migratory route used by migrants, refugees and asylum seekers from West Africa and NA to reach Europe (Italy). The region has witnessed complex mixed movement flows, particularly along the CMR where arrivals in Italy via this route surged in 2022, with a 34.57 per cent increase in the first half of 2022 and a notable 2.80-fold rise in the second half, totaling 77,498 people by Dec 2022. IOM registered 461,101 people arriving in NA from 2021 to 2022, of which 5,405 were victims of trafficking (VoTs), from 2019-2023 IOM alone registered and assisted over 40,000 migrant children, 10,000 of whom were unaccompanied and 10 were identified as VoTs. The vulnerabilities and needs for migrant children and VoTs is only on the rise, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating existing vulnerabilities and distorting protective systems with the Mediterranean routes, meaning significant crossings. 

​While progress has been made in terms of national response, international cooperation and evidence building in NA, additional efforts and capacity remain necessary to ensure that VoTs and children on the move are adequately protected and access their rights while stranded along NA migration routes. Robust efforts are needed to ensure coordination and adequate responses to the needs of child trafficking victims.

​The Regional Development and Protection Programme aims to address that, by building evidence base, operational guidance, inter and intra-regional convening to address child trafficking, the programme uses a route-based approach to strengthen increased cooperation and exchange of operational actors and frontline responders in the region to protect VOTs and children on the move in the region and key routes. The programme focuses on the protection, prevention and partnership elements to the child trafficking elements, ensuring that all stakeholders leverage and establish partnerships for protection, and evidence base informed interventions for child trafficking. 

The whole of government approach is adopted where line ministries including ministries of social welfare, ministries of Justice and the national councils to combat trafficking in North Africa are involved, for example under the same programme, the national councils to combat trafficking from various countries in North Africa  were consulted to develop a thematic learning note on lessons learned and emerging practices to combat trafficking in the region, including child trafficking. 

In the short term, the programme builds the evidence base on child trafficking, looking at the main drivers, protective and vulnerability factors of children. It also builds concrete and operational guidance to strengthen the protection of child victims –targeting both child protection and counter-trafficking actors. Finally, it convenes regional coordination mechanisms with the overall aim of enhancing partnerships between child protection and counter-trafficking actors and addressing the coordination gap identified between these actors at national, regional and cross-regional levels.

For instance, on 5-6 March 2024 in Cairo the programme brought these actors together to exchange promising practices, priorities and challenges faced in the protection of VoTs and children on the move. The workshop enabled discussion of pressing issues related to child trafficking in the region, both the gap of evidence base and of protection to child victims. Participants included 30 representatives from the governments of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia, as well as the AU, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNODC and the EU Asylum Agency. 

This event is the first in a series of regional exchanges dedicated to supporting member states in achieving migrant-protection commitments, in line with the objectives of the SDGs and the GCM under the regional programme.